


Epiphany Over Easy

by EruditExperimenter, TheMonsterGhost, ZeNami



Series: Saboteur [2]
Category: Strex Family - Fandom, StrexCorp - Fandom, Welcome to Desert Bluffs - Fandom, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Abduction, Cybernetics, Gen, Psychological Trauma, Surrealism, Transformation, cyborg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2014-11-18
Packaged: 2018-02-24 21:00:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2596280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EruditExperimenter/pseuds/EruditExperimenter, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMonsterGhost/pseuds/TheMonsterGhost, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeNami/pseuds/ZeNami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abducting Jake Lin and swapping his heart out with a biomechanical replacement may have succeeded in luring Marcus Vansten to StrexCorp, however if the company believes the angelic billionaire is going to meekly acquiesce to their demands, they're sorely mistaken</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

After some thought on the matter, Sergio chose the sun room. Open to the sky, enshrouded in plants and flowers, it seemed a perfect place for an early morning meeting with an angel.

He’d had them bring in a table somewhat sturdier than the delicately wrought glass and metal creation on which he shared Sunday lunches with Luciano. While he could replace it if Marcus became unruly, it had a degree of sentimentality to it Sergio was not eager to risk having destroyed.

The new table was laid out with a number of enticing dishes - eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce served with flatbread and feta cheese, fragrant brioche heaped in a little basket nearby a mound of butter whipped with honey and an array of jars containing jewel-like preserves, yellow cherries blushing pink and sweet in a crystal bowl, salty fish fried crisp in hot pepper oil, coffee in a silver service with fine china cups.

Not that Sergio expected he or his guest would touch a morsel of it. He was certain that Marcus would hardly be in a mood for eating, but courtesy was important.

He sat, toying with a silver coffee spoon, and waited.

Marcus was, as to be expected, fashionably late—and he did not bother to hold back on style in the fashion of his arrival, either. The time was about nine fifteen when there was a ripple in the sun room’s air; at first, it could have been a haze caused by the trickle of sunlight through the glass, but the humming vibration that followed suggested otherwise. Space rippled, as if it were a great pair of wings unfolding, and then it was—gold feathers in a flurry and a heavy black glow in the shape of a man’s silhouette. Green eyes stared out in every direction from the shape, until it slowly began to manifest, opaque fingers becoming solid and taking on a more familiar mocha complexion.

Marcus stood in the sun room, his profile to Sergio; he wore a sharp, finely tailored white suit, complemented by a red dress shirt and a spill of white silk at his throat, accented with an emerald brooch. The jacket had been modified to accommodate his wings, which took up as much, if not more space than he did, almost fully extended. Even his shoes were white, though gold-plated soles gleamed beneath him in competition with the sun.

The vibration subsided, and Marcus drew his wings in with a breath, already glowering at Sergio as he turned to face him. His weight rested all on one leg with his thumb in his pocket; his fingers were adorned with an assortment of gold rings and diamonds, a fine gold watch visible on one wrist. The Angel sneered.

"Hey, Strex. We gonna make nice and pretend you didn’t mutilate my PA last night? You know I don’t like it when people touch my stuff.”

It was difficult, even for Sergio, not to be impressed. Seeing Marcus was like seeing some natural phenomena trapped in a humanoid frame; a star forged in the shape of a person or a storm straining at the seams of a human form - threatening to rip it asunder any moment in a fury of light and sound. Looking at the angel was almost painful; like trying to stare into the sun. It stung the eyes and caused the chest to tighten, but the re-educator did his best not to avert his gaze.

He was _really_ going to enjoy taking that apart.

“ _Your stuff_ ,” Sergio mused, raising a brow. ”Does Mr. Lin know you refer to him that way? Or are you just thinking of him as an object now due to his most recent step in conversion?” He clucked his tongue. ”I confess I thought better of you.”

He really did believe that Marcus’ love for Jake would overcome any changes made to the PA’s body and mind. The feelings the angel harbored for the machine-hearted human were genuine; deep and strong. It was evident in every fiber of his being; every word and motion. Something like that wasn’t so easily broken.

Closing the space between them, Sergio favored Marcus with a bland smile.

"Our chef prepared a lovely meal for us, but if you wish to forego it, I can certainly take you to Jake first. His room isn’t far from here - quite close to my on-facility accommodations, in fact. The last we checked in on him, he was recovering nicely - no complications whatsoever."

Extending a hand toward the entrance, Sergio gave the divine billionaire a little nod.  "Shall we?"

Marcus’s eyes narrowed, but he felt no immediate need to snap back at Sergio for going off about the objectivity of his assistant. He didn’t need to waste breath protesting that ‘ _His stuff_ ’ didn’t have to mean things—that it was none of the bastard’s goddamn business how he connected with his boyfriend, and that he should shut his bullshit mouth.

He had something else in mind to make Sergio reconsider his attitude.

The re-educator’s decision to come closer was his first mistake. As he did so, Marcus stared at him—more accurately, at his face, at his eyes. As a creature of holy light, of purity, he could see the toxic threads that twisted through the man’s mind, holding him to this persona he had built. He could see it like a poison in his blood. No… not see. _Feel_. And it would be so easy to reach out, and grasp those threads, and just…

"Actually," he said, voice low as he turned to fully face the man, leaning in as his eyes returned to that abyssal black. "I just remembered I don’t wanna play this game. _Wake up, Sergio_.”

Marcus’s hand came up suddenly, and he pressed the pad of his thumb into Sergio’s forehead, fingers in the front of his hair to hold him still—his fingertips went black, and he held eye contact as his brow twitched, pouring holy light into that corrupted mind, forcing the black, twisted vines of StrexCorp’s re-education away from the man who didn’t know he was trapped in his own head.

Sergio’s breath hitched once as Marcus’ hand made contact with his forehead. There was half a moment of surprise in his features - the more mundane sort one might expect when facing a breach of etiquette. Taken aback, he might have said something, but every word he’d ever known evaporated under the fiery black gaze of the angel.

His initial bewilderment melted into amazement, and then slowly dawning horror as seventeen years came cascading back on him in full force, though now devoid of the warped lenses through which he’d been viewing them. It was like lifting a plaster cast off of one’s face and looking at the impression left on the interior. It might be shaped like you, and share your features, but in the end was little more than a cold facsimile. He could watch, detached, as this strange, twisted impression of himself moved through his memories, taking the lives of people like handfuls of clay to be re-shaped into more convenient, useful forms. This monster who had been wearing his face saw the fault lines in people and tore them open; found the threads that connected them to others and played them like a finely tuned violin until all they touched danced to the tune.

Seventeen years of terror. Seventeen years of tearing human minds apart and putting them back together again in more ‘pleasing’ configurations. Seventeen years of devotion to a Smiling God and all its insatiable hunger for life’s antithesis.

All at once. All for Sergio.

The man collapsed, falling to his knees with eyes wide enough for the whites to show all around them, his entire frame shaking as though he’d swallowed an earthquake. Tears began to gather bright against his lashes, tracing crooked paths down his cheeks.

He saw himself, young and foolish, returning again and again to sip from a poisoned cup. Just a taste at first - something novel. Wear a coat of scales, soak your teeth in venom and play a viper’s part. But soon the sips became more frequent, the draughts more heady. The scales he wore became less temporary and were shed with greater and greater effort until there was no point in trying to rid himself of them any longer. He had forgotten a time when he had been anything other than a serpent coiled warm beneath the sun.

_Mia._

“No.”

Yes.

Marcus watched Sergio unravel with a distant, solemn stare; he really didn’t feel much sympathy for the man. not after what he’d done to Jake—not when he was part of the machine that was trying to shew up his town and spit it out as something more to its own tastes. Funny how Sergio had spent so much of his life doing that to people. Marcus could only imagine what such a revelation might feel like.

And yet, a certain element of Angelic instinct took over. _Protect_.

Marcus knelt down on one knee in front of him, his wings sweeping forward; they created a golden canopy, a safe space, shielding him from the prying eyes of the company that had once controlled him. He was not sure that he had purged the poison completely—he was young, for an Angel, and he didn’t quite yet have a full grasp on what he could do. But he had separated the toxic parts from the buried ones.

It was cruel, almost. But you couldn’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

"Breathe," he said softly, his eyes softening to their expected emerald green. Marcus could feel his pulse pounding from the weight of what he’d just done; where it could lead. He just wanted his PA back, but he couldn’t abandon the weak. And Sergio needed someone, anyone right now.

"I know. It’s kind of a kick in the teeth, huh. I just took your blindfold off… Take a minute, Suit."

Sergio’s eyes looked right through the angel, seeing something a thousand miles away even as Marcus knelt and cocooned him in the golden expanse of his wings. Breathing came in tight, labored gulps, the man’s hands shakily tugging the knot in his tie loose in an attempt to ease the struggle. A thousand waves crashed together in the enclosed space of his skull; chaos confined and concentrated. Unconsciously, therapy methods and medications he might use to calm himself whirled through the fore of the man’s thoughts - flashes of lightning piercing the tempest inside.

_Ode to Joy, lavender, vicodin, chamomile, rose, oxytocin—_

"Stop-!"

Fingers raked through his hair and over his scalp as if to claw his mind back into submission. Teeth clenching hard enough so the creak was audible even to Marcus, Sergio’s eyes squeezed shut as if unable to decide if it was better to release or re-bottle everything that had been set free. At last, after a few ragged breaths and broken, wounded noises wrenched from him as if by fish hooks, he calmed to the point of coherence.

"Why… _me_? I don’t…I was just some _stupid kid_ …I came from _nothing_ … _seventeen years_ …”

He’d never come home. One day he’d simply left and never came home. Images of his father, indifferent, perhaps a bit upset; his aunts and uncles likely annoyed more than anything else. Was that part of the reason why him? Because no one would have come looking?

It’s what he would have done, had he been in Ricardo’s position.

Pulling off his glasses, mopping still-flowing tears from his face with one hand, Sergio shook his head in stupefied horror; the shock of revelation still ringing between thoughts. His eyes found Marcus’ again, finally, utterly thunderstruck.

Everything I’ve done. All those people.

_What now, Prince Monster?_

Marcus watched Sergio fall apart in surges with a strange sort of detached vindication. He was righteously angry, that was certain; he would be lying if he tried to claim there hadn’t been a malicious motivation in showing Sergio what he was. What he’d become. And yet, in a way, he understood. His ascension had granted him a sharp awareness of purpose he had never felt before, and for the first time in his life, Marcus had regretted his apathy.

Now Sergio was regretting his actions.

He just shook his head; he didn’t have any answers. He couldn’t explain to Sergio why—he didn’t understand why StrexCorp did anything it did. He’d always hated big corporations, mostly because they were competition, but this one really took the cake. The whole goddamn cake. He held still a moment, inhaling, exhaling slowly, until Sergio looked at him, and he met that stunned stare with an almost uncharacteristic gentleness.

Erika. _Markus_. Not so much Vansten.

"Yeah," he said softly, his wings shifting around them both with a rustling of metallic feathers. "I dunno what you wanna do now. But lemme make you a promise, Strex," he said, his stare level, fingers curling into his palm where he had his forearm braced on his raised knee. "You help me get Jake outta here, and I’ll help you however you need. Whatever you wanna do now, I’ll back you up with everything I got." His voice tightened, emotion in his eyes. "Anything. Just gimme back my PA. He’s all I got that matters anymore.”

" _Don’t call me that_."

The words were edged with ice, the lines of Sergio’s posture going rigid. His bewilderment evaporated under the mention of the corporation’s name. Drawing in a deep breath through the nose and exhaling at length, he mastered himself, posture straightening as he cleared his throat, adjusting his tie back into place with hands that trembled only slightly.  "Sergio if you would, Vega if you must, but not Strex.”

At the mention of Jake, he further steeled himself, running a hand through his hair, fixing his glasses.

_Work. Plan. Find some structure to hang onto and get a grip, for heaven’s sake. You’re a professional, damn it; act like one. Fall apart later._

"Yes; Lin. I’m…I can take you to him, of course. You’ve no need to bargain for anything - he’s no business being here in the first place."

Frowning, he glanced down to the floor before meeting Marcus’ eyes again, stomach twisting into guilty knots.

"…I’m sorry. I can’t return his heart. If I could, I would."

In all likelihood, Jake’s original heart was now melded or melding itself into Luciano’s pipe organ or, possibly, the piano with which he’d been gifted as a, ‘hiring bonus.’ Every now and again, Luciano came across an organ he deemed ‘useful’ in enriching the quality of his instruments. It was almost like watching animals being fed at the zoo; the biomechanical entities recognizing and reaching out for their new components. Drawing them in, making room, warping and assimilating them; the big fish eating the little ones.

Sergio shuddered.

"I am so sorry."

That caught Marcus a little off-guard.

The Angel stared for a moment, expression mostly unreadable. His wings seemed to wilt like unwatered ferns, just slightly; he thought about Jake. How he was stuck with that mechanical monster heart for the rest of his life. How he would have to maintain a piece of his body like a piece of a car, or a factory machine. How it would dehumanize him and how he would resent it… it was a scar he could never recover from. Not really. It was only Marcus’s hope that they could both come to accept it. He had looked down at the floor at some point, dark lashes shadowing his distant gaze. It flickered up suddenly, staring at the crumpled man in his shelter.

"… You should be," he said finally, but then almost immediately afterward, "Apology accepted."

Marcus stood slowly, smoothing out his white suit before offering Sergio a jeweled hand, his eyes hard, mouth set in a solid line. “Come on, Sergio. You’re better than sobbing on the floor. You were meant for more than that.” There was that word again. “Don’t care if I don’t owe you, either. If whatever you’re gonna do now is gonna tear this company apart, I want in. I’m sick of this lemon-yellow eyesore smothering my town.”

_Don’t touch my stuff, right?_

Taking the hand offered, Sergio gave the angel a curious look.

"You keep using that word," he replied, getting to his feet. "I do not think it means what you think it means."

Straightening himself out, the re-educator exhaled at length, brow furrowed.

"Once we’re outside of this room, I go back to being…who I was." Shaking his head, he grimaced. "And pray that we don’t run into any of my siblings. I’m fairly convinced I could pass myself off as who I was to most of them. I might have difficulty with Caesar or Diego, but I could manage. Ricardo, however, is another story entirely.”

All Sergio’s mentor would have to do would be look at him. He’d know in an instant something was amiss, and then anything Sergio and Marcus might be planning would be dead in the water.  Taking a moment, he relaxed, posture, gait, and expression melting away into the shape of the man he had been before Marcus laid hands on him.

_You’re Sergio Vega; Ricardo Vega's heir. You own everything under this roof; including the feathery asshole whose PA you’re slowly mechanizing. Not that he wasn’t halfway there already. Really, you were just doing the poor fellow a favor._

He couldn’t help feel a tightening thread of anxiety coiled around his throat at how simple it was to slide back into that horrifying mindset. Did it really take so little time and effort?

Striding out of the double doors that led to the facility proper, thoughts already began to coalesce around a rebellious little center forming in his mind.

_Tear this company apart._

He could do it, if he set himself to the task. To be sure, it would be no mean feat, and the repercussions were not something he could even properly fathom just at that moment, but…

…He _could_. With a little help.

Marcus didn’t have to do much in the way of modifying his behaviour once they stepped out of the room. He followed Sergio in stony silence, fully aware of all the eyes on him; it reminded him that here, actually, Angels were very real, and very dangerous. There was probably not a poor sap they passed who didn’t know what he was, golden wings shining brighter than the yellow posters lining white halls.  He kept his shoulders squared and walked with purpose, as if daring any single one of them to stand in his way. He was here for Jake.

As Sergio guided the angel through the hallways, a few employees gawked openly, though most tried to steal furtive glances at the divine billionaire as he passed. Before long, the pair found themselves outside of Jake’s room.  

"Daniel may be with him; just be prepared for that."

Even now, guilt twinged in some corner of his heart, colored the same shade as Daniel’s eyes, shaped like his glad smile.  Releasing Jake was clearly the only course of action now; his abduction was inexcusable, the surgery unspeakably cruel.  And yet, seen through the right kind of eyes, it was a blessing.  Were the conversion to proceed as scheduled, Jake would never have to worry about any ailments for the rest of his life; all the maladies the flesh was heir to no longer applicable.  Furthermore, his lifespan general would be greatly extended, his strength, endurance, dexterity, cognitive functions all enhanced.  Perhaps the most important thing, at least to Sergio, would be that all of this would mean, finally, that Daniel would no longer have to be alone.  

He’d been so happy; so glad to have someone to relate to.  And now, they were going to take that away from him.

It was selfish and wrong to consider Jake’s life something that could be given or altered for someone else’s sake, yet even now guilt from both sides tangled in complex patterns through Sergio’s mind.

“ _Daniel_ ,” Marcus thought.  That was… Sergio’s pet robot, right? The one he’d gotten all defensive about in the first place.

That _did_ concern him, though. One more obstacle, and that biomachine was very familiar with Sergio as a person. They’d have to tread lightly. If push came to shove, he was ready to subdue a piece of machinery, he thought. How hard could it be?

"Yeah, you too," he muttered with a raised brow.

Tapping in the pass code for the door Sergio took a deep breath, plastered on a confident smile, and stepped into the room beyond, the angel following behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A de-educated Sergio reunites Marcus with his abducted PA, but fledgling plans to dismantle StrexCorp may be confounded by the presence of a certain biomechanical producer

"Good morning!  How are we feeling today?"

Jake was still sleeping when Sergio entered the room. He groaned at the voice, turning his head away without opening his eyes and without any desire to communicate with his tormentor.

It had been one hell of a long night. At first, Jake absolutely refused to speak to Daniel. Daniel tried to insist he understood, but Jake spat his responses before insisting silence. How could Daniel possibly understand the feeling of literally getting one’s heart ripped out and having it replaced with something terrifying? Sure, he and Daniel had the same heart now, but the StrexCorp producer had _always_ had that heart. _He_ didn’t have to watch a piece of himself get taken away by a madman in order to assimilate it into one of his goddamn musical instruments. Even if he _did_ get to see something like that, he wouldn’t understand the horror of it. Daniel had always owned a biomechanical heart - to see it used for biomechanical purposes wouldn’t be unexpected. But Jake had to watch his organic heart, his _real_ heart…

Daniel couldn’t _possibly_ understand and Jake didn’t want to hear him say he did. He didn’t want to hear anything.

That was all at first. The hours dragged on with Daniel staring in silence, perfectly patient. Even Jake was unnerved by it. He felt himself occasionally glancing at Daniel, wondering what else they could talk about; wondering if he could at least use Daniel to pass the time.

And then they began to talk. They talked about work and Jake found it relaxing. He eventually, and finally, fell asleep.

Daniel had been kept up by his thoughts all night, trying to parse exactly what Jake was trying to get him to understand. He still didn’t.

The biomachine had wired himself in to the wall in order to stay awake, feeding directly from the building’s electricity while his fingers tapped almost mutely away at a laptop keyboard at near-impossible speed. While he was completing and filing reports, he set his secondary processes to trying to word better what he had failed to articulate the night before; that he _did_ understand. Not because he had been through precisely the same experience, but because he knew what it was like to find yourself in a new body, an unfamiliar one, and to have to learn how to live all over again.

He looked up from the screen when Sergio entered the room, smiling reflexively; his eyes lingered only a moment on the Angel (with a certain degree of Palmer-induced paranoid caution), but returned quickly to his surrogate father’s face. “Good morning, sir.” He unhooked himself from the wall, his eyes dimming a shade.  “I’m well. Mr. Lin has been sleeping. I’m sure it’s aiding his recovery.”

“ _Jake_!”

At the sound of Marcus’ voice, Jake jumped, eyes snapping open. The PA wasn’t able to turn as quickly as he wanted, still shaking off the dregs of sleep, but there the divine billionaire was; golden wings, emerald eyes and all. He watched Marcus in stunned silence.

Marcus’s composure just about fell apart, his wings flaring up like a startled golden peacock. From outside, they disappeared inside the doorframe as the Angel slipped into the room, streaming right past Sergio and completely ignoring the biomachine in favour of getting to Jake’s bedside. His green eyes were wide, slightly panic-stricken, and in an instant he was bent over his PA, fussing at him like a hen.  His left wing extended to effectively create a curtain, giving them a moment of privacy.

"Jake, oh thank god, they told me you’d be fine but I didn’t _know_ —you’re OK? You don’t feel, uhh, sick, or anything, you’re…?"  He was trying very hard not to think about the fact that a machine was keeping his PA alive right now; that it made him a machine. Instead, he touched Jake’s face, soft copper hands cradling it and stroking his cheekbones and looking him in the eyes as if all the answers he needed were there.  He kissed Jake’s forehead, running fingers over his hair with a sigh and leaving his mouth there. “Fuck,” he breathed, staring ahead at nothing, overwhelmed with relief.

The air surrounding the event was unexpected, to say the least.  Something was _off_.

Marcus didn’t sound angry, like the re-educator was exacting some sort of price in exchange for the Angel being able to visit. He was hovering over Jake casually when Jake thought he should be keeping an eye on his back. What was stopping Sergio from stabbing Marcus square in the back with a knife or syringe? Unless it was in the air…

Jake slowly covered his mouth, ready to warn his employer about the possibility of gas in the room but instead he only managed a choked sob. The noise astounded him. He tried once more to speak but was only able to manage a cracked, “ _Marcus_ …” before humming in peace, arms wrapping around Marcus’ neck. Nothing mattered in that moment. Not the rapid fire questions, not the mechanical heart in his chest, and certainly not Strex. The only thing that mattered was that Marcus was here and he felt really and truly saved. “God, Marcus, _get me out of here_ ,” he begged quietly, trying to hide the shivering in his voice. He was stronger than this, he told himself as tears pooled at the corners of his eyes.

Marcus was presently beyond giving a damn about the rest of the room. He didn’t care that he was burrowed deep into the heart of Strex grounds, that he had his back to two enemies (sort of), that what he was doing was reckless and dangerous and actually so _typical_ of him now—he had Jake in his arms, safe, where he was supposed to be. Nothing else mattered. Not right away.

The sob broke his heart, and he cradled Jake to him a little tighter until the PA’s nose was buried in the spill of silk at his throat. He took a deep breath and let it out, pulling back just enough to look at him, searching his face for signs of pain or exhaustion.

"I’m gonna," he promised, his voice only a whisper. "Be patient for a sec, OK? I’ve got a plan, and it’s gonna happen, but you gotta keep on like you don’t know. Hush hush, right? Like my walk of shame that night after the casino incident, we don’t, talk about, ever - _that_ kind of _shh_.” He put his index finger to Jake’s mouth and smiled that sort of serene, knowing smile he had adopted since his ascension.

He flared his wing a bit more to peer suspiciously through his feathers at the pair. That robot was going to be a problem, and the look Marcus flashed to Sergio suggested that he take care of it.

Sergio watched the pair, a tender expression crossing his features briefly.  Were he in the same situation with Stella, he would have moved Heaven and Earth to be at her side.  He sighed into a comfortably smug grin, eyes hooded as they lingered for a time on the pair before turning to Daniel with a more genuinely affectionate smile.  

Guilt burrowed into his heart, coiling heavy and serpentine within; the same conflicted feelings writhing against one another.

_Sisters, brothers, friends, lovers…I would create a thousand of others like you if I could._

But the only guaranteed method to bring another biomachine like Daniel into the world, which had delighted him not a day before, now made his stomach turn. While Sergio was sincere in his belief that biomechanical people were no less valid than their organic counterparts, the idea of abducting and converting people from flesh to steel against their will now instilled a resonant dismay.  Perhaps, if they had the time, willing people might have been found, but _now_?  He’d be careful to leave intact whatever equipment was needed for Daniel’s maintenance, of course, but the rest of the house of cards that was the Strex Corporation was coming down.

"Thank you so much for staying with him, Daniel.  It was very considerate of you.  Did you have any helpful conversations with Mr. Lin?"

"We were discussing work," Daniel said, closing his laptop and setting it on the nearby end table; there was an easy, relaxed smile on his face, even with an Angel in the room. Primarily because the Angel apparently wanted nothing to do with him. Marcus would get his visit with Jake, and then Sergio would probably get to researching celestial beings like he’d been wanting to, and it would be fine.

"We actually have a lot of process and work ethic in common," he commented, standing up and automatically straightening his suit, adjusting the cuffs of his sleeves inside his jacket. "I’m a bit impressed. It’s not what I expected, but what one might describe as a pleasant surprise…"

Daniel cast Marcus a curious look, noticing that those green eyes were lingering on him.

"… Is the Angel staying long, sir?" he asked, a slightly nervous edge colouring his smooth, electronic voice. "I’m… concerned about allowing such a dangerous thing to move around freely like that."

"Don’t worry about _Erika_ , Daniel.  He’s not going to so much as put a toe out of line if he knows what’s good for him."

The words came easily enough for Sergio - he’d worn the mask and played the role for such a long time.  All the same, a quiet, creeping revulsion moved through him as he spoke; his easy manner concealing a wildly thumping heart.  The enormity of what they were planning had begun to settle in, the re-educator’s head beginning to spin like a dervish all over again.

_His siblings, his mentor, Stella, Daniel._

What was he going to do with them all?  He couldn’t kill them, and doubtlessly they’d try to stop him.  The logistics of it all would be staggering.

Clearing his throat, he offered the biomechanical man a smile.

"I’m glad to hear you and Mr. Lin are off to a good start.  Daniel, could you do me the kind favor of getting together my files concerning our present knowledge of angels and delivering them to my lab?  I’d like to review them again before Mr. Vansten and I begin our work together.  We have so much to do, and I don’t want to waste any time looking into something about which we already know.  I think confirming or debunking some of our suppositions with our dear Erika would also be useful.”

Jake had missed the part where Sergio got sense knocked into him and was none the wiser to the silent plan forming between him and Marcus. So despite Marcus’ soothing words, his anger flared up. He hissed, “Don’t fucking _touch_ him,” although he was unable to see Sergio beyond Marcus’ wings. His eyes flickered up the Angel’s, searching for some sort of answer, more reassurance that everything was going to be alright.  "If they get a hold of you," Jake growled, low enough to keep it between them, "I’m going to kick your ass myself. _Sir_.”

" _Shh_ ," Marcus hissed quickly, putting a hand on Jake’s chest to stop him from getting up, in case he was getting that kind of brilliant idea. "Calm down." He looked Jake in the face, and winked; he couldn’t say anything else. Not with that damn robot in the room.

Jake just listened, eyes focused on Marcus. It was hard to relax. It was hard to trust anyone, especially when he was still within Strexcorp walls. Thousands of questions raced through his mind, each stemming from the thousands of possibilities and outcomes he was imagining. Would they take the window? Would there be some kind of Erika army outside? Was Marcus planning to trade their positions on Luciano’s lab table?

Daniel ignored Jake’s outbursts —with the Angel in the room, he expected it. The Angel in the room that was making him increasingly nervous and paranoid. A memory log surfaced somewhere in his processor, the bright shadows of wings in broken retinal cameras, inversed and glowing…

He blinked rapidly and focused on what Sergio was asking of him instead of dwelling on it.

"Of course, Sir," he said with a smile, and made for the door—he thought better of leaving right away, though, pausing long enough to stop and place a hand on Sergio’s shoulder to thank him. "I appreciate this… This whole project, you…"

The biomachine hesitated, looking at his hand on Sergio’s jacket. Even through the linen, he could feel, through sensitive fingertips, a pulse that was hammering too hard. Too fast.

"… Are you alright, sir…?" His blue eyes flickered up to Sergio’s face, searching it for evidence of distress. "Your pulse is…"

_Damn_.

His first instinct had been to pull back when he saw Daniel reaching for him, but that would have given Sergio away for sure.  Instead, he’d held still, maintaining his composure, hoping against hope his suit would be thick enough to obscure the uptick in his pulse.

Daniel, however, continued to demonstrate superlative craftsmanship and the finest, most perceptive sensory suite StrexCorp’s best minds could conceive of.

Contrition contorted his features, Sergio’s hand moving with a singular speed and purpose to his surrogate son’s neck.  Granting such close proximity to his person was something Daniel did not do lightly; the rarity of the privilege a thing of which the re-educator was keenly aware.  He could count on one hand with fingers left over how many Daniel trusted so implicitly, and violation of so precious a faith caused the biomachine’s surrogate father a palpable vexation.

"Danny, I’m sorry."

If he waited, gave even a split second for Daniel to process any suspicion, everything would be over.  While the android’s unequivocal devotion to his surrogate father was beyond reproach, there were instances in which his programming would override all independent executive functions, ensuring Daniel’s actions adhered unerringly to StrexCorp protocol no matter what his own personal feelings might have been on the matter at hand.

Suspicious action from someone as high ranking as Sergio Vega would have been a clarion call to bring the entirety of the company to its feet, and so there was no choice besides an emergency shutdown.

If Daniel’s face registered any indication of surprise or hint of betrayal, Sergio either did not, or would not, see it before the biomechanical man’s eyes flickered into darkness and his body slumped forward like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

With a grunt, he shifted to prevent Daniel from collapsing onto the floor, holding the other up with an effort.  His frame trembling beneath the now dead weight of the artificial intelligence’s platform, Sergio’s gaze darted to Marcus and Jake.

"A little help, if you would?" he growled, giving a nod to an empty chair into which the android might be deposited.  "Daniel’s rather _sturdily built_.”

Jake had been trying not to think about anything, and to have faith in that heart-warming wink that Marcus gave him. And then there was the sound of Sergio betraying Daniel’s trust.

Emotion flared up in Jake’s chest, his breath catching. Were they supposed to trust Sergio? Even more pressing, what happened to Daniel? Jake had begrudgingly grown fond of the biomechanical man. They had a lot in common, besides the grotesque heart that only belonged in someone like Daniel. Not that he found Daniel… grotesque… But the perfectly functioning equipment belonged in other perfectly functioning equipment of the same variety. Jake was human… or maybe it was just that… Jake was organic.

He was still deciding on whether or not Daniel was human. Either way, he liked Daniel and his eyes went wide when he heard the man collapse into Sergio’s arms. “Daniel?” he asked, unable to see passed Marcus’ wings and unable to sit up with Marcus’ hand on his chest. “What happened?” he pressed, worry evident in his voice despite the relatively even tone with which the question was asked.

_There. Good. Problem solved_.

Whether or not Sergio cared about the robot, it was better this way—it was pointless and dangerous trying to dance around the walking security machine when it was easy enough to just turn it off—which he’d been hoping for. He stood up straight when Sergio asked for help, looking briefly at Jake with a mildly puzzled look.

Jake sounded worried—no, not worried. _Concerned_.

Well, that was bizarre. Putting it aside for now, Marcus sighed and turned around, his hands getting a solid grip on the android under the arms as he took on most of the weight. “Holy shit,” he wheezed, “Is this thing made of lead or something?”  Not that he couldn’t handle it—Marcus wasn’t exactly soft in the upper body strength department.

Despite the verbal depersonalization, the Angel helped to heave Daniel into the nearby empty chair, letting out a deep sigh of relief once it was accomplished. “Wow.”

Just like moving furniture, really. Daniel wasn’t the same as Jake. He couldn’t be. Jake was… Jake was different.

“ _Daniel_ ,” Sergio hissed at Marcus as they shifted the biomechanical man’s weight between them, situating him into the nearby chair.  ”His name is _Daniel_ , and he is not a _thing_.”  Sharp eyes found Marcus’ briefly before turning a softer gaze to the android.  

"Sure, _whatever_ ," Marcus muttered—he didn’t feel like arguing the point right now. Inasmuch as he was concerned, Daniel was just an obstacle that Sergio had been conveniently able to shift out of their way—he didn’t think much of any breach of trust, or familial betrayal. The biomachine was just a computer that could talk, wasn’t it?

Having a partially mechanical heart didn’t make Jake a computer. he was still…

Marcus was giving himself a headache.

Leaning over to conscientiously arrange the producer’s limbs, trunk, and head, the re-educator glanced over his shoulder at Jake to give him a reassuring look shot through with remorse.  ”He’ll be fine, aside from, perhaps, a short lapse in memory.  It’s an emergency shutdown switch; he won’t wake again until he’s manually re-activated.  I trust Daniel to not do anything that would intentionally harm me; in fact, under other circumstances, I would enlist his help in all of this.  Unfortunately, there are programs to which he must adhere that override his own independent thought processes.  Even if he wanted to help us, he would be unable to due to our goals running contrary to StrexCorp’s interests.”

Straightening, Sergio ran a hand tenderly down the side of Daniel’s face, tucking an errant strand of hair behind his ear, his own brow furrowed ruefully.

"If anyone asks, I’ll simply tell them I’m performing maintenance checks.  I won’t be questioned."

Exhaling, Sergio composed himself, putting his suit in order and correcting the position of his glasses before looking to the Angel and machine-hearted man.  "Marcus, if you wish to leave with Jake now, I won’t blame you.  You two needn’t stay here for what’s to come, but if you’d like to remain and help me tear this place apart from the inside out, it would be greatly appreciated."

Watching as Marcus set Daniel down, Jake felt a pang of fear. If he had been put through all of the surgeries Sergio and Luciano had planned for him, would he have been that easy to turn off? It wasn’t a difficult task learning how to knock out an organic human being. But a human would wake back up. Daniel would stay off until someone turned him back on. What if that was never?

While he continued to fight with his definition of what makes one human, he slowly slid his legs off the side of the bed and sat up. Carefully and with a brief flinch, he stood. It wasn’t so bad, actually. He felt stronger although his chest was sore from the healing incision. It was a relief to him as he immediately considered going right back to work once they were free. If he hadn’t been so concerned about Daniel, that realization would have made him laugh. He truly _was_ ideal for biomechanics, wasn’t he?

Jake shuffled over to Daniel, reaching out to put a hand on his chest. Was his heart still beating? Was he still alive while sleeping? Was he dreaming? Just before his fingertips reached Daniel’s suit, Jake pulled his hand away. He bit his lip and realized he didn’t want to know; afraid of how he would feel if Daniel’s heart _wasn’t_ beating. “He’ll remember me, though… Right?” asked Jake.

"Jake, I don’t think Daniel could forget you if he tried," Sergio replied with a sad smile. Sighing, he fiddled in a distracted manner with his tie.

Marcus surfaced from his thoughts in time to see how Jake approached the android—how he reached out to touch him. How he questioned his well-being and even seemed to be concerned with whether or not Daniel would… remember him?

The Angel gave a callous shrug—he didn’t have an answer. Maybe Strex had done a bit more mind-warping on him than he’d thought.

"Up to Jake if he wants to stay," he said loosely crossing his arms over his chest, gold wristwatch flashing out from a red shirt cuff. He watched his PA with a crooked frown. "Jake, I’m gonna stick around and help Sergio for a bit. S’part of the whole duty thing, or whatever. Up to you if you wanna stick around and help. I can jump you home and come back, or you can stay. Feel up to it?"

"If you choose to stay, Jake,” Sergio began, “I think I have a job for which you would be well-suited. I understand, however, if you wish to depart and we can still possibly accomplish what needs to be done. I can come up with a reason as to why we released you, so no one should follow after once you leave."

Pursing his lips, the re-educator’s eyes dropped to the floor, fingertips drumming along his chin in thought.

"I have some ideas. I’ll need at least one other person to work with us, and that will mean de-education. I can’t guarantee how he’ll take it and whether or not he’ll help us afterward is not certain, either.  However, Luciano is our best shot at an ally in our endeavors."

Another glance was spared to the inert biomechanical man. If only those protocols could be removed…

"This is going to be risky. Perilous, really. It’s not completely out of the question, but there’s a lot that could go wrong no matter what kind of plan we put together, and we could all end up dead or worse.”

The sort of Re-Education regimen a rogue member of the Strex Family might undergo was something Sergio did not wish to contemplate. Jake and Marcus would likely be swallowed up by the research and development departments, never to be seen again by the outside world. Looking first to the Angel, and then to the personal assistant, he continued.

"If either of you are uncomfortable with that, then now would be the time to leave. Marcus, I know you’re ready to throw your hat in, and while I appreciate that, Jake may have completely understandable objections you may wish to take into account. I can attempt this with other people and resources at my disposal, but I won’t lie - an angel and someone of your outstanding talents, Mr. Lin, on my side would astronomically increase the chances of success."

Jake rubbed his chest with a groan. There was no use in talking Marcus out of tearing Strex apart and he wasn’t going to let the dumbass do that all by himself. With Jake present, there was a good chance Marcus would be more careful. There was also a chance he’d be even more reckless. But then there was the bit where Jake had confidence in his own skills. Enough to know he was a valuable asset.

He placed a hand on Daniel’s right shoulder, far from where a heart should be, and he nodded. “I’ll help,” he said, “I just need a shirt. And my god damn phone. Please.”

Smiling tenderly to Jake’s display, Sergio reached into his jacket pocket, withdrawing a smartphone which he extended to the PA.

Marcus was briefly torn between a sense of pride in his PA for being willing to stick to a very dangerous scheme, and the need to shelter him from all of it. Had Jake expressed any hesitation, he would he zapped him home in a second, putting him well out of harm’s way—but he was actually more comfortable knowing that Jake would, as always, be there to back him up.

"You heard the man," he said to Sergio, staring at Jake, noting  the way he was sticking close to the shut-down android. Had he gotten that attached already? Marcus didn’t understand. But whatever Jake wanted…

"Very good.  Marcus, there’s a cell in which you’ll need to stay to keep up appearances.  Don’t worry - it’s well appointed to the degree of ostentation and no one will bother you.  You were to have been my personal project, and I’d not yet granted anyone outside of myself access to your quarters.  Jake, I’ll need to make some adjustments to your heart’s settings, but they can be done remotely.  Once in place, you’ll never have to worry about anyone from StrexCorp accessing it again."

While it was unclear what would or would not serve as a practical cell capable of holding an Angel, Marcus’ attachment to Jake was a convenient tether a less scrupulous man might use to make the divine billionaire toe the line.  Sergio shuddered inwardly at the thought.  

"I’ll start getting together the materials necessary to get this all underway this evening.  If, of course…my session with Luciano goes well."

It sounded dangerous already. Jake looked uneasily at Marcus. “So the plan is to put Marcus away and to mess with my heart remotely…” he muttered, rubbing the screen of his iPhone clean on his pant leg. It was a little suspicious and a bit of a risk, but he didn’t see where he had much of a choice.

With a grimace, he shrugged in agreeance. “Alright,” he sighed, “I guess we’re— oh, fuck, twenty-four priority emails just sitting here.”

Jake groaned, forcing himself to put his phone away. “Can we make this quick? I’ve got work to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> A kind thank you to my co-authors, Zenami and TheMonsterGhost  
> Jake is portrayed by TheMonsterGhost and can be found roleplayed at: mrvanstensbitch.tumblr.com  
> Luciano Silva, Marcus, and Daniel are portrayed by Zenami and can be found roleplayed at: smilingindoctrinator.tumblr.com, marcusgoddamnvansten.tumblr.com, and synernist-supervisor.tumblr.com. Marcus and Daniel are canon WTNV characters, and Luciano Silva was created by Zenami as her Desert Bluffs Carlos  
> Diego was created by VidenteFernandez.tumblr.com as her Desert Bluffs Carlos and the iteration spoken of here can be seen portrayed at: scienceandstrex.tumblr.com  
> Caesar as created by Caariosamu.tumblr.com as her Desert Bluffs Carlos and can be seen portrayed at lucentsynthesist.tumblr.com  
> Ricardo Vega was created by timeanddivision.tumblr.com and can be seem portrayed at: strexcorpsguardian.tumblr.com  
> Sergio Vega belongs to EruditExperimenter and can be found portrayed at: eruditexperimenter.tumblr.com


End file.
